# Well-Defined Glycopolymer Chitosan Mimics for Design of Chitosan Nanocomposites

## TL;DR

Researchers created well-defined chitosan-like polymers to better understand and improve chitosan-based nanocomposites for biomedical and packaging uses.

## Contribution

A novel methacrylate-based glycomonomer was synthesized to produce chitosan mimics with controlled properties.

## Key findings

- The chitosan mimics had controlled molecular weights and low dispersity.
- The mimics showed similar cytotoxicity and antibacterial activity to natural chitosan.
- The mimics helped elucidate interactions between chitosan and graphene oxide in nanocomposites.

## Abstract

Chitosan, a naturally derived polysaccharide with intriguing
antimicrobial
and polycationic properties, is highly desirable as a biosourced and
biodegradable material for biomedical, food packaging, and personal
care applications. Its inherent high levels of variability in molecular
weight, dispersity, and degree of deacetylation, however, make the
establishment of structure–property–processing relationships
difficult and limit materials development. In this study, a novel
methacrylate-based glycomonomer with saccharide structure similar
to that of chitosan was synthesized and copolymerized with methyl
methacrylate via reversible addition–fragmentation chain-transfer
(RAFT) polymerization to create a series of well-defined chitosan
mimics with controlled molecular weights and low dispersity (<1.1).
Evaluation of mammalian cytotoxicity and antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus
aureus revealed performance similar to that of chitosan.
The copolymers were used as models to evaluate difficult-to-probe
interactions between chitosan and graphene oxide (GO) and elucidate
mechanisms of mechanical property improvements observed in chitosan/GO
nanocomposite films.